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16 January, 2013

Hotel Kursaal & Ausonia: why this name?

Many guests that come to stay in our hotel ask me what its name means.
The question is not strange because it is a long and complex name, but we know now and we knew when we chose it.
The story begins long time ago, in the past century (about 1950) when a young couple decided to open a hotel in Florence, in the same building that previously was a guest house named Ausonia.
The young and ambitious couple looked around and in their opinion, shared with many others, the most beautiful hotel in the area was the Kursaal Hotel in Montecatini Terme. A smart luxury hotel whose guests used to go to the city’s thermal baths, not far from Florence.
They thought that name could be a lucky one, so they gave it to their 9 rooms hotel, which they were going to open.
Kursaal is a German name which means: “treatment room”, which has nothing in common with the hotel, but who cares?
My husband Giovanpaolo bought the two hotels (the Kursaal and the Ausonia) in 1992. I came here to stay at the beginning of 1993. It was love at first sight, we met and we fell in love – 6 months later we got married.
When we renewed and modified the Kursaal Hotel (2 stars) and the Ausonia Guest House (1 star) in one single 3 stars hotel, we took a very long time to choose the name.
But in the end the one that looked perfect was the name it already had, by matching the old names. We could not forget the name that made us meet!
So Kursaal (treatment room in German) and Ausonia (literary and poetic name of Italy)… Nothing could be more different than these, just like my husband and me. Maybe when you mix different things together, you have a good result: try it to believe it!!!